Property tax program problems frustrate seniors waiting for help

KING COUNTY, Wash. — A King County program aimed at relieving property tax burdens for low-income seniors and people with disabilities has been the source of problems and frustration for many applying for it.

The program recently expanded from qualified King County residents who make up to $40,000 a year to include residents making up to $58,423. And for the first time ever, the King County Assessor’s Office decided to move applications to a brand-new, online portal and to remove the paper application from the website.

“I do emails, and I do Googles, and I read the news every day, and I do different things like that,” senior Dee Weedin said of the portal. “But when it gets to doing stuff, like doing this, I would not be able to do it. … It’s a real struggle.”

Weedin has lived on Vashon Island for 55 years and bought her house on the North End of the island about 15 years ago.

“It was everything I wanted,” she said. “One bedroom, one bath, but it has a couple acres with it.”

But property taxes have been rising there — just like all across the area.

“I always worked. And all of a sudden, I came down with cancer,” she said. “So I lost my income, and I fought cancer for a year. And when I came out of the hospital, I knew I was going to have to do something with the taxes.”

Weedin contacted Hilary Emmer, a Vashon Island resident who’s retired from preparing taxes for a living but continues to do taxes for free for low-income seniors. She’s also signed them up for the property tax exemption program for years by using the paper application.

“Online, one took me over an hour to do,” Emmer said. “And you needed a scanner. You need an email address. You need internet access.”

Vashon’s library building and senior center are closed, making those things tougher for some seniors to come by. But that’s not the only issue. Emmer and Weedin submitted Weedin’s application in February. Then they started waiting. And they weren’t the only ones.

King County Council member Rod Dembowski said his office has been inundated with emails and phone calls from seniors over the past few months, complaining about problems with the portal, busy phone lines at the Assessor’s Office with no ability to leave a message and wait times spanning months.

“We’ve had a lot of inquiries, phone calls and emails, saying, ‘Hey, I applied. And I’m waiting and waiting,’” Dembowski said.

In March, one person emailed, “The property tax relief website is not accepting my documents. I’ve been trying for the past two hours, and I’m not computer illiterate.”

In April, another wrote that they asked for a copy of the paper application, but they “have not heard anything back.”

One man asked in September, “Are you sure my application is being processed in the order received? Note that it was filed February 21.”

“They were entitled to some grace,” Dembowski said of the Assessor’s Office, “but my patience ran out this summer.”

Dembowski offered them funding if they needed more workers.

“Do you feel that the Assessor’s Office adequately prepared for the influx of new seniors participating in this program?” KIRO 7 reporter Linzi Sheldon asked Deputy Assessor Al Dams.

“Absolutely,” Dams said. “Now, we got more than we thought we would get at the outset of it.”

Dams said they added three extra staff members before the launch, expecting thousands more applications. But not this much more.

“We usually get 2,000 to 2,500. But this year, we’re pushing 10,000 applications,” he said.

At the time, he said there was a backlog of about 3,000 applications for this year’s taxes still waiting for approval. Dams told KIRO 7 last week that that had since been brought down to about 2,000.

He pointed to the pandemic as one of the reasons for the slowdown, saying it took time to set up employees to work from home. Dams said they added nine workers from other parts of the department starting in July as they finished other jobs.

“You’re saying between February and July, more workers would not have been helpful?” Sheldon asked.

Dams explained they would have had to take people off processing to train new workers, which would not have been helpful.

Then there were the portal problems.

From February to May, the portal would not allow people to upload three pages or more, so people had to mail in paper documentation after applying online.

Then, there was what Dams called a processing slowdown from March until July due to an older version of software that didn’t work well with the online portal.

“To be inclusive of seniors of all abilities, why wouldn’t you make it as easy as possible for them to apply online or on paper?” Sheldon asked.

“We’ve done exactly that,” Dams said. “Anyone who wants a paper application simply has to email us or call us, and we’ll send them one.”

The webpage for the program takes you to the online portal. And while there are prompts to email or call for help, nowhere does it show a link for the paper copy.

The website does warn that there’s been a 500% increase in emails and phone calls.

“I think, here, they fell down on the job,” Council member Dembowski said.

He’s asking the King County Auditor’s Office to assess the program and come back with recommendations.

“I think the preparation in terms of staffing and technology testing could have been a lot better,” he said. “And I hope it’s a lesson learned.”

“They are making it confusing,” Hilary Emmer said. “And a lot of people, when they get confused, they just walk away.”

Weedin finally got her approval letter in August after she had to pay the first half of the year’s taxes. And she tells us that she only got her refund check last week.

“Utilities go up. Everything goes up. And you have to make every penny count,” she said. “But when you don’t know what you have, it makes it difficult to figure out a budget.”

People who are still waiting for approval can apply for an extension so that they don’t have to pay the second half of the year’s taxes — which are due next Monday — until January. The county reported nearly 1,400 people have signed up for the extension so far.

People can also apply for refunds for this year and some previous years.

Find out more information below:

Who qualifies for the senior property tax exemption?

Download a paper copy of the 2020 application

How to apply for the senior/disabled property tax exemption online

How to apply for a tax relief extension if you’re still waiting for approval

Cox Media Group